If you want to know what causes tight, weak hip flexors, and what to do about it, then you want to read this article.

Key Takeaways

Stretching can help reduce hip flexor tightness, but not by making you more flexible.

Paradoxically, strengthening your hip flexors may reduce tightness.

If you’re like most people, your hips feel tight all the time, and especially right at the top of your thighs.

They probably flare up when you do lower body exercises too, like the squat and deadlift.

Such is life with tight hip flexor muscles.

What can you do about it, though? Should you stretch? Strengthen? Something else altogether?

Well, poke around on the Internet and you’ll find a lot of conflicting opinions on what causes tight hip flexors and what to do about it.

Some people say that sitting is to blame because it shortens and weakens the muscles, others say exercise–and weightlifting in particular–is at fault, and others still say that muscle weakness is the root cause.

There isn’t much agreement about how to best fix the problem, either.

“Stretching is the key,” says one expert. “No,” counters the other, “strengthening must come first.”

And there you are in the middle, wondering whom to believe and what to do.

Well, the truth is hip flexor tightness isn’t as cut and dried as many people would have you believe. As you’ll see, causation is murky and “magic bullet” fixes are unlikely.

The good news, though, is you don’t have to know exactly why your hip flexors are acting up to figure out how to fix it, and with a little trial and error, you can do just that.

Let’s start at the top…

What Are Hip Flexors?

The hip flexors are a group of muscles around the top of your thighs that connect your upper leg to your hip.

These muscles are involved in just about every kind of movement that involves your lower body, including exercises like the squat, deadlift, overhead press, and even bench press.

There are quite a few hip flexors, and the primary ones are as follows:

Iliopsoas

Rectus femoris

Sartorius

Tensor fasciae latae

Pectineus

Adductor longus

Adductor brevis

Gracilis

And here’s what they look like:

They’re called hip flexors because they create flexion in the hip, which is the technical term for a bending movement around a joint in a limb (such as the knee or elbow) that decreases the angle between the bones of the limb at the joint.

For example, when you raise your knee, hip flexion occurs because it decreases the angle of your thigh bone relative to your hip joint.

(In case you’re wondering, the opposite of flexion is extension, which occurs when you lower your knee from a flexed position.)

What Causes Tight Hip Flexors?

The scapegoat du jour for tight hip flexors is sitting, even for short periods.

“Sitting is the new smoking,” we’re told, because it purportedly increases the risk of all kinds of disease and dysfunction (a claim that appears to be more wrong than right, by the way).

As far as the hip flexors go, the theory is that sitting tightens these muscles by forcing them to remain contracted (and thus shortened) for extended periods of time.

Another popular theory is that tight hip flexors are caused by overuse.

The idea is the more you punish these muscles with intense exercise, and especially weightlifting, the more likely they are to become and remain tight.

Many people also say that the tightness you feel in your hip flexors is caused by a combination of both of these factors.

With a handful of stretches and exercises, you can get relief and also probably improve your lower body workouts because impaired lower body mobility is one of the most common things that gets in the way of proper squatting, deadlifting, and the like.

Let’s start with hip flexor stretches.

The Best Stretches for Tight Hip Flexors

If a muscle is tight, our first instinct is to stretch it.

Well, while stretching can benefit our body in many ways, it isn’t a panacea for muscle tightness. It may or may not help, depending on what’s causing the problem.

That’s why a simple trial and error approach is best with stretching tight muscles, and tight hip flexors in particular.

Do one of these stretches several times per day for several days and see if it makes your hip flexors feel looser and less aggravated.

If it does, make a note and move on to the next stretch, and after trying all of them, continue doing those that helped.

Hip Flexor Stretch #1Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch

This is one of the best stretches for targeting the hip flexors.

Work on this for 2 to 3 minutes per leg per stretching session.

Hip Flexor Stretch #2Psoas Quad Stretch

The psoas is a powerful pelvic muscle that plays a key role in hip flexion. Here’s what it looks like:

When this muscle is tight, it’s common to experience lower back discomfort and it makes heavy squatting more or less impossible.

You perform this stretch by assuming the position, and then driving your knee into the ground and leaning forward into a deep stretch, and then releasing.

Perform this drive and release pattern for 2 to 3 minutes per leg per stretching session.

Hip Flexor Stretch #3Walking Knee Hug

This is another simple but effective hip flexor stretch that might help loosen your hips up.

This stretch also targets your glutes, which are also very often tight.

Do 10 to 12 knee hugs per leg per stretching session, holding the top position for 1 to 2 seconds each time.

Hip Flexor Stretch #4Rocking Psoas Stretch

This is another psoas stretch with many variations. Play around with it and find what is best (or just most convenient) for you.

Work on this for 2 to 3 minutes per leg per stretching session.

Hip Flexor Stretch #5Rectus Femoris Stretch

This stretch targets one of the largest hip flexors, the rectus femoris (one of the quadriceps muscles).

Work on this for 2 to 3 minutes per leg per stretching session.

Hip Flexor Stretch #6Scorpion Stretch

This stretch is fantastic for your hip flexors, glutes, and lower back.

Do 4 to 5 repetitions per side per stretching session.

The Best Exercises for Strengthening Hip Flexors

You know by now that eliminating hip flexor tightness isn’t an exact science. You have to try various things and see what works.

Hip Flexor Exercise #4Leg Press

Many people consider the leg press an inferior version of the squat.

I disagree.

It not only requires less technical skill (making it more newbie-friendly) and stabilizing muscles (allowing you to load heavier weights), it also is fantastic for building hip strength (due to its large range of motion).

Here’s how to do it on an angled press (which I prefer):

And here’s a seated press:

Hip Flexor Exercise #5Bulgarian Split Squat

It’s rare to see someone doing Bulgarian split squats, which is a shame.

Unbeknownst to many, the split squat is a fantastic unilateral leg exercise, and is particularly effective for training your hamstrings, hip flexors, and glutes.

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The rectus femerus is one of the heads of the quadriceps so it is activated in all or most lower body movements . But the illipsoas and the rest aren’t they the antagonists in the lower body movments such as squats,lunges and their varations? We are doing knee extension and hip extension Which would be the glutes and quads primarily. How do they strengthen the hip flexors?

Hey Sean, it really depends on the movement. During step-ups, for instance, the hip flexors are going to be activated to a certain extent. The hip flexors also serve as a stabilizing muscle for just about every lower body movement. There aren’t that many good ways to specifically isolate the hip flexors, and given there still isn’t that much evidence strengthening them helps with tightness, in this case it’s really more a matter of trying different things and seeing what makes you feel better.

Well, poke around on the Internet and you’ll find a lot of conflicting opinions on what causes tight hip flexors and what to do about it.

Carywheel Carywheel

Hey! Mike What’s up? I read your entire article and seen all your video and after that I can say this is one of the awesome article, Really, I’m your big fan, But still some question in my mind actually mike I’m not able to understand what is Hip Flexor Exercise leg press, actually I want to know you that which video you have provided this is enough to understand or any other information required. I hope sure you will reply to my question.https://fitnesschoice.com.au/

Laura

I would never go down that far on the leg press now, (I actually have a Cybex Leg Press just like that and I love it.) just way too much stress on the spine… I blew a disc in my back coming down that far, now I have an artificial disc in my spine because of it, and plan on keeping it in there.

Hey Laura, sorry to hear about your back. The leg press should be safe if you keep your back and butt firmly against the seat. It’s not a bad idea to play it safe if you’ve had a previous injury, though.

Laura

Hey Mike, thanks, I am fine now due to a 100% successful surgery. I have even considered competing again in a couple of years, if not that definitely photo sessions.

Ohh my God! This is exactly my problem! Well, overthinking about this before I couldn’t agree more with you about the content on the internet, the confusion and all the alternatives we have become a problem when we want solve something annoying like this, but for me the Bulgarian Split Squat exercise have made wonders for my legs and my yoga class 2 times per week, because I figure out that I have one leg stronger than the other and this exercise fix it. Thank you for this great article! Is good to have one place to come to clear our minds with correct information and than take action at the right direction.

My trainers have advised me that my lats need more attention than my legs even though I am good at weighted pullups and not able to squat impressive weights. This is probably because I am 70 years old and only weigh a little over 161 pounds first thing in the morning empty. They gave me some very hard to do leg exercises and I value the advice you give but I can only keep my form punctilious with modest weight but I do more variety for my lats.

It’s great that you’re still lifting weights and making progress. Keep me updated 🙂

Matt Hoskins

What’s the answer to postural problems such as anterior pelvic tilt? I wouldn’t think strengthening the hip flexors would help that situation. I assume strengthening the posterior muscles (hamstrings and glutes, but mostly glutes) would be the primary fix.

Hello, overall a fairly decent article full of good starting point information, however one claim that I was particularly concerned with was the following statement: “For example, sitting can’t permanently or even temporarily “shorten” your hip flexors because muscles can’t change in length–they can simply become bigger or smaller.”

My concerns with the statement are as follows: 1) This article does not reference the hip flexors or the effects of sitting to them. It has to do with a stretching program to increase dorsiflexion ROM. These are two very different areas of the body and the study deals with an active stretching program designed to increase ROM, not passive sitting

2) If you look closely at the authors conclusions “Thus, increases in end ROM were underpinned by increases in maximum tolerable passive joint moment (stretch tolerance) and both muscle and fascicle elongation rather than changes in volitional muscle activation or motoneuron pool excitability.” These authors claim that elongation is caused by muscle and fascicle physical elongation, therefore it would be more logical to assume the opposite of your claim. That being, if prolonged stretching can indeed change muscle length then prolonged positioning in a shortened position can shorten muscles.

3) This article is from 1985, surely you could have found a more updated source…

4) Tissue respond to the demands placed on them. If someone is immobilized in a flexed elbow position, for example, when they have their cast removed they will be missing ROM, most noticeably elbow extension. This example can be extrapolated to sitting, while not completely immobilized for weeks to months, prolonged sitting can cause hip flexors to shorten through this adaptive shortening process.

Overall Michael I’ve impressed with your use of scientific literature to back up your work but this was a clear and major failure in my eyes with this article.

To address your concerns, the study in question did find that tissue doesn’t actually stretch like a rubber band. Instead, the body just becomes more “tolerant” of moving into an extreme range of motion by reducing the pain response and allowing the muscles to relax more. That applies to every area of the body, and there’s no evidence that the hip flexors would be any different. As I mentioned in the article, most studies also don’t show that sitting causes back tightness or pain, either, so it seems unlikely sitting actually does much of anything to the hip flexors, either.

Good article, I’ve been suffering with knee pain for a couple months due to the hip flexor, patellofemoral pain, I keep stretching it out and it gets better, then i spend a bunch of time at work having to travel (drive) a bunch for a few days or a couple weeks and everything tightens back up and I’m at square one. Very frustrating.

As I said in the article, stretching might help people feel better. The reason I recommend mobility, is that it helps train people to be more comfortable in positions that will be needed during certain movements.

That doesn’t mean stretching or mobility work actually lengthens the muscles (they don’t).

A perception. That doesn’t mean it isn’t real, but it isn’t necessarily caused by the muscle or tendon actually shortening. The same way pain isn’t always evidence of damage.

Bob Fergile

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Pout

Hi, I have not a good mobility with my hips. Does both stretching and strenghtening them makes sens? You gave both stretch and strength exercise,do I have to try and test one strecht at a time and do after that one strenght at a time. Or can I do both?

There’s not an exact science to it. You can do both stretching and strengthening. I recommend trying one stretch for several days. If it doesn’t help, move on to the next. The bottom line is to try different things, and keep doing what works 🙂

Ben Hanson

I think you should mention that for some people, stretching is not the solution and that it will deteriorate their posture. Some people need stretching, but most people I know need to strengthen their “overstretched” hip flexors. Many people can’t do a single hanging leg raise. Check this site if you want to know more about the importance of hip flexors https://smarterpage.wixsite.com/unlock-hip-flexors

Sorry, that means you’re wrong. If you rule out all possible causes, that means your evidence to rule out at least one of the causes is suspect.

My muscles have shortened. Particularly my psoas. If I lay down on my stomach for a while I will eventually feel significant pain along my psoas. The pain goes away if I rotate my femur externally, because that shortens the distance between the psoas connection points.

Sorry, but that’s how the scientific process works–it’s mostly about proving what doesn’t work, not about proving exactly what does. The bottom line is that if muscles actually stretch at all, it’s such a small amount that no studies have shown any significant changes to date.

It’s good you’re playing around with different techniques to feel better, but aside from your personal experience, do you have any evidence to back up your claims?

Sorry, but that’s how the scientific process works–it’s mostly about proving what doesn’t work, not about proving exactly what does. The bottom line is that if muscles actually stretch at all, it’s such a small amount that no studies have shown any significant changes to date.

It’s good you’re playing around with different techniques to feel better, but aside from your personal experience, do you have any evidence to back up your claims?

Brad

Sorry, your comment demonstrates why orthopedics is still in the dark ages. Arrogance and ignoring the patient’s actual complaint. You ignore inconvenient facts and treat a single study as gospel. Most of the 30 plus doctors I see do too.

You said there is no cause for tight hip flexors, yet you acknowledge tight hip flexors are a problem. If your hip flexors are tight, they must be shorter. If they aren’t shorter, they aren’t tight. Your position contradicts itself, therefore a single study on stretching proves nothing.

You, like most doctors, want to make answers easy, when each patient is different and actually requires open-mindedness and analysis.

1. I’m not an orthopedist, so I wouldn’t know about that nor do I have patients. 2. What study are you referring to? 3. So, you’re saying that become someone feels like their hip flexors are tight, that means they must be shorter? I think the article makes a pretty good case for the fact that perceptions of what’s going on in the body don’t necessarily tell you what’s going on in the body. By your logic, if someone says the feel short of breath, their lungs must have gotten smaller. 4. Once again, not a doctor and I don’t play one on the Internet.

Brad

Terrible analogy. If someone feels short of breath, they need to breath, or they just need time to catch their breath, which is NORMAL. Their lungs might also be smaller (filled with fluid).

If they feel tight, they need to be untightened. Tightness is not normal. Shortness of breath is, when exerting yourself. But being tight ALWAYS no matter what, like me, is not normal.

So much conflicting information and ignoring of logic. That’s why orthopedics is still in the dark ages.

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Wes Benderman

Good article. In my case I find that slumping or bad posture to be the culprit. I drive a lot and I play the guitar a lot. as long as my posture is correct I don’t feel pain as soon as I feel pain I know that I need to sit up straight and correct the spinal curves. That said it is more likely that in most people there is more than one cause.

Working at a job especially repetitive one or working out in the gym for many hours at a time are not natural human activities. As hunters and gatherers we would have been better at sprinting and resting for short periods. Upper body strength would have mostly been useful fighting and obviously building. lower body strength was and always will be at a premium. When ancient man got tired he took a rest. They didn’t have a time schedule like we do now to try and keep up with. At any rate the human body is incredibly complicated, trying to find a single cause for a problem like this maybe a waste of time. Just my experience and opinion. Finally I would like to say that your ideas about experimentation to find what works for individual conditions are spot-on.